27 Over the tomb of his father and brothers, Simon raised a monument high enough to catch the eye, using dressed stone back and front.

28 He erected seven pyramids facing each other, for his father and mother and his four brothers,

29 surrounding them with a structure consisting of tall columns surmounted by trophies of arms to their everlasting memory and, beside the trophies of arms, ships sculpted on a scale to be seen by all who sail the sea.

30 Such was the monument he constructed at Modein, and it is still there today.

31 Now Trypho, betraying the trust of young King Antiochus, put him to death.

32 He usurped his throne, assuming the crown of Asia, and brought great havoc on the country.

33 Simon built up the fortresses of Judaea, surrounding them with high towers, great walls and gates with bolts, and stocked these fortresses with food.

34 He also sent a delegation to King Demetrius, to get him to grant the province a remission, since all Trypho did was to despoil.

35 King Demetrius replied to his request in a letter framed as follows:

36 'King Demetrius to Simon, high priest and Friend of Kings, and to the elders and nation of the Jews, greetings.

37 'It has pleased us to accept the golden crown and the palm you have sent us, and we are disposed to make a general peace with you, and to write to the officials to grant you remissions.

38 Everything that we have decreed concerning you remains in force, and the fortresses you have built may remain in your hands.

39 We pardon all offences, unwitting or intentional, hitherto committed, and remit the crown tax you now owe us; and whatever other taxes were levied in Jerusalem are no longer to be levied.

40 If any of you are suitable for enrolment in our bodyguard, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us.'

41 The gentile yoke was thus lifted from Israel in the year 170,

42 when our people began engrossing their documents and contracts: 'In the first year of Simon, eminent high priest, commander-in-chief and ethnarch of the Jews'.

43 About that time Simon laid siege to Gezer, surrounding it with his troops. He constructed a mobile tower, brought it up to the city, opened a breach in one of the bastions and took it.

44 The men in the mobile tower sprang out into the city, where great confusion ensued.

45 The citizens, accompanied by their wives and children, mounted the ramparts with their garments torn and loudly implored Simon to make peace with them:

47 Simon came to terms with them and stopped the fighting; but he expelled them from the city, purified the houses which contained idols, and then made his entry with songs of praise.

48 He banished all impurity from it, settled in it people who observed the Law, and having fortified it, built a residence there for himself.

49 The occupants of the Citadel in Jerusalem, prevented as they were from coming out and going into the countryside to buy and sell, were in desperate need of food, and numbers of them were being carried off by starvation.

50 They begged Simon to make peace with them, and he granted this, though he expelled them and purified the Citadel from its pollutions.

51 The Jews made their entry on the twenty-third day of the second month in the year 171, with acclamations and carrying palms, to the sound of lyres, cymbals and harps, chanting hymns and canticles, since a great enemy had been crushed and thrown out of Israel. Simon made it a day of annual rejoicing.

52 He fortified the Temple hill on the Citadel side, and took up residence there with his men.

53 Since his son John had come to manhood, Simon appointed him general-in-chief, with his residence in Gezer.

Bible Resources

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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